Many internet users, particularly those in research related
fields, spend large amounts of time perusing PDFs that make up much of the
internet's vast online resources. Now these helpful documents may have a
new friend, in the form of live internet ads, thanks to a partnership between
Yahoo and Adobe.

The new service is being pushed by the Ads for Adobe PDF powered by Yahoo
campaign, announced
today.

While the ads may bring a bothersome annoyance to some previously ad-free
documents, which had previously been free of advertisements, they may have
beneficial effects as well. Scientific journals may elect to put their
content online for free, subsidized by advertisement revenue. The
benefits or merits of this are debatable, but many will feel that the more
available information, the better.

The service is entering its beta phase. Adobe has announced Yahoo is its
exclusive ad provider at least for the beta phase, but has not announced when
the beta phase will end or if it will open up to other advertisers, such as
Google.

All PDF content providers will have to do to participate is upload their
documents to an Adobe/Yahoo portal and the documents will be retrofitted with
embed ads and returned to the publisher. Adobe is designing APIs to
simplify this process and make it extremely easy and convenient for content
publishers.

Ads will appear on an adjacent panel, so won't interfere with the document
itself. The ads will not interfere with document printing, either.
When a user clicks one it will launch a new browser window. The service
currently only supports pay-per-click text ads, but it is planning on expanding
to graphical and rich media ads.

Usage is free for publishers, who can click
here to sign up for the beta program. Publishers can block up to 200
urls they don't want advertising in their PDF.

Yahoo and Adobe's movie is another business deal which will leave some thrilled
at the prospect of new content and new revenue, but others fearful of abuse and
inconvenience.

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For [Paramount] to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks!" -- Movie Director Michael Bay